Friday Bake-Off: Baked Rigatoni with Mini Turkey Meatballs

Today's the last day to enter to win the entire book-a-day cookbook series from Woman's Day. Head over to my Monday post to enter if you haven't already! This pasta dish is from Tuesday Night Is Pasta Night, and it's a simple way to prepare pasta for dinner in advance, then bake it off when you're ready to eat. (Perhaps when your spouse calls to say he's on his way home, for example.)

First I cooked half a box of rigatoni in boiling salted water just 12 minutes, 2 minutes less than the box instructed. I drained the pasta and put it back in the pot. Then I mixed in 18 once-frozen-but-now-thawed mini turkey meatballs and a jar of pasta sauce.

I layered half the mixture in a 9-inch-square baking dish coated with cooking spray, then dolloped ricotta on top. I only used half a 15-ounce container total because my family doesn't really like ricotta very much, so this layer is about 1/2 cup ricotta; there's 1 more layer to come. Then I sprinkled with 1/4 cup grated Parmesan.

Repeated those layers with the rest of the pasta mixture, another 1/2 cup ricotta and 1/4 cup Parmesan. Covered this with foil I had sprayed with cooking spray, then baked at 375F for 35 minutes. Served with salad and green beans.

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